In this blog you will see a journey being taken by students and teacher to build up our minds, muscles and imaginations together through inquiry, exploration, investigation, problem solving and teamwork!

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Kindergarten Researchers: Writing Nonfiction Books

Our kids are fascinated with nonfiction books. They love reading about real things! We decided to learn how to write nonfiction books by having all of us write one about castles. Each day, we learned about an element of nonfiction books such as labeling, fun facts, close up pictures, maps, questions and having fun with font to title what each page was about.

After our first try with our castle books, the kids picked a subject they were interested in to research and write a non fiction book about. They were very focused during their research!

Some researched in teams since they picked the same topic to write about.

I love how our friend below has literally surrounded herself with books to do her research!

They created web maps to organize their thoughts before writing their books.

After they researched and organized their data, they started writing their books, using their web maps to remind them of what they had learned during their research. Subjects ranged from worms, birds, Guinness pigs and insects to volcanos and planets!

After writing their books, most of the kids wanted to put the books they wrote in our class library for others to read. Parents, the kids will be bringing home their books for you to enjoy soon!

I am a Kindergarten Teacher for West Carrollton City Schools (West Carrollton, Ohio, U.S.). I have taught kindergarten for 24 years. In this blog, you will see both teacher and students on a journey to build up our minds, muscles, and imaginations through inquiry, investigation, exploration, problem solving and teamwork. We learn together through a project/inquiry and play based learning environment. I have been on a journey from a traditional, thematic based teaching style to a more student-led, project/inquiry and play based teaching style. The more I learn from all of you wonderful teachers around the world, the more fun I am having inquiring, exploring and learning along side my students. I hope that this blog will be an inspiration for those of you thinking about doing the same.